L. A. Miller Diary of 1936
(Excerpted by Fred Lindley)
Friday, January 3: … I am working on reports to a number of taxing commissions. Telephone companies are being taxed out of existence, as well as businesses and farmers.Saturday, January 4: I am working on reports. Bill is going to Hamilton now to learn bookkeeping.
Saturday, January 11: … We have so many auto accidents and so many kill and seriously hurt that I have decided to quit recording any of them, except those right close at home…
Tuesday, January 14: … Another collision on roads - seems to be a common occurrence. We have had so many at the short turn at the south end of our town that we are never surprised when the next one happens.
Saturday January 18: … I went to Oxford to get off some reports to tax commission, etc. I met a few old friends. Tell Mason, for one, an ex-teacher who located permanently in Oxford many years ago. He had a mail route for many years and was retired on a pension.
Sunday, January 19: … I have a [?] crook who is not going to pay his telephone rent. He owes me over $60 rent. I will take his phone out and sue …
Thursday, January 23: A real stinger cold. The coldest since 1899. February 19, 1899 was 39° below zero. I drove that a.m. to 18-Mile schoolhouse where I was teaching and at 9 o’clock my thermometer stood at 19° below zero. Many school buses have had a bad time getting children home and some have been frost-bitten. …
Saturday January 25: … I listened awhile to the old barn dance in Chicago. And the talks and music as plain, as if they were in the room, where I have been sitting.
Sunday, January 26: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF -10°, A MID-DAY HIGH OF 0° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF -10°] a cold day. But if you on the roads. This promises to be one of the coldest January months of which I have any record as
to the weather. 1883 to the present time.
Monday, January 27: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPURATURE OF -30°, A MID-DAY HIGH OF -10 DEGREES, AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF -20°] A cold night: the coldest and lowest temperature possibly ever recorded [in the US.] Great loss of life and suffering in the US and Canada.
Tuesday, January 28: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF -10°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF -20° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF -12°.] another cold day and not much change or prospect of one soon.
Wednesday, January 29: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF -10°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF-6°, AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF-8°.] A really cold day. … a January to be remembered. Much loss of life up to date and cold still with us and February ahead of us.
Thursday, January 30: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF -10°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF -6° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF -10°.] A cold wrong day. … more trucks on the road today. Business moving again, but slowly. Not many autos on the road.
Friday, January 31: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF -10°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF -6° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF -2°.] A cold day. … people are getting tempered to conditions of snow and low temperatures. … the coldest January
in 40 years.
Saturday, February 1: Cloudy and cold to moderating. I attended the stock meeting. We had oysters, cooked and raw. Coffee and etc. I resigned my office as secretary of the company. A poor attendance. No assessments – there being $90+ in the treasury. Sufficient to see us over a year. No thefts have been reported in the past year. The company is slowly dying is my prediction. All such companies end sometime. State police have taken the place of suchcompanies.
Sunday, February 2: At home in the house doing some work. Send check to Charles Duersch of the Duersch Coal Company. $13.39 in payment for 2 tons of coal. … Grandson Bill arrived home this a.m. from a strenuous night in Hamilton, Ohio, after football game – YMCA - all night. Saturday, February 15: … The K of P # 578 is not doing any work and like many in Ohio have to get busy or close its doors. Many have combined to save themselves from being taken over by the Grand Lodge of Ohio.
Sunday, February 16: … February promises to be a record winter month - as of the old times, 1860-70 and 1880-90, when ice was stored and sleigh-riding was general. Now, autos have the field and airplanes the air: what next? Who knows? I don’t.
Wednesday, February 19: … The K of P lodge here is going back in subs and it looks like a final closing. Not a K of P has called to see me except one, George O. Manrod.
Saturday, February 22: … I am getting some money in on telephone rent. I hope to get out and collect; but, have no one to take around to see the subs. L. C. Keller gave me $20 on rent due. … Will pay as soon as possible.
Monday, March 2: … Arnold bought a sow of Fred Decker this a.m. Brought her home this p.m. I am afraid he is “getting too many strings to his bow,” as an old saying goes.
Wednesday, March 4: … K of P had an oyster feed this p.m. … K of P is on the downgrade. Only seven in good standing. We are liable to lose the lot and building, which would go to the Ohio Grand Lodge and be sold.
Friday, March 6: … I have been busy doing a lot of odd jobs on books, etc. But, at the switch and good part of the time. … Arnold is at Peter Baecher’s wiring his house for electric light.
Wednesday March 11: … Mrs. Jay Phillips Wilson spent the day with us.
Friday, March 13: … Bill is on his job book keeping in a Hamilton Ohio Business College. … the electrical people are working in north Milford [township]. The plan is, as usual, to make subs for the lines.
Sunday, March 15: … We have a great deal of telephone bills standing out. Some few will never pay, but the major part will pay, as prices for all farm products are now good.
Monday, March 16: … Mark Nichol called this PM.
Saturday, March 21: … Flood at Pittsburgh has been one of the disasters of the year. Estimate 2,000 homeless.
Sunday, March 22: … The entire east is flooded and loss of life is already very great…
Tuesday, March 24: … I called … for his telephone rent. He is not wanting to pay, without being sued and [the] telephone company avoids doing that in most cases. I am hoping to sell out this year to [the] Bell Company of Cincinnati or someone and retire from business.
Wednesday, March 25: … Arnold is off-duty-taking care of his father-in-law, a hopeless invalid.
Friday, March 27: … Flood - Ohio River - at Cincinnati stands at 60 feet. Thousands in Ohio Valley had to abandon their homes.
Sunday, March 29: … I am not going to do any gardening. The south can furnish all kinds at a less cost so far as we are concerned.
Tuesday, March 31: … Bruno Hauptman, the kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby, has received a stay of execution, due to new evidence dug up by the board of investigation…
[THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF APRIL, MR. MILLER DESCRIBED THE AFTERMATH THE FLOODING MENTIONED ABOVE, THE LINGERING WINTER WEATHER, AND HIS CONTINUING EFFORTS TO COLLECT TELEPHONE RENT.]
Saturday, April 25: I went to Hamilton Ohio and paid my taxes today. I met a few old friends. Business in Hamilton seems to be getting better, so the merchants say. … Mr. A. Neanover was plowing my large lot today for corn.
Monday, May 4: … Karpis, who killed a banker at St. Paul Minnesota has been captured by us G-man at New Orleans Louisiana.
Thursday, May 7: … I guess I will have to part with my last horse to keep peace in the family. My son and grandson are auto and truck crazy. I have had but little used for him; but, he made me a great deal of money, before autos took a field and the auto has wrecked the masses financially
Friday, May 8: … I find my friend Dietrich does not want my horse, as a gift. He will have to go to a horse buyer in Cincinnati Ohio, I suppose.
Monday, May 11: … My last horse went south in a truck, at a very low figure. … he is about 32 years old; but, full of pep. He could pace, or trot, at a very fast gait.
Tuesday, May 12: A general state and county election in Ohio and other states today. I went to the polls and voted.
Wednesday, May 13: Arnold and Bill got in shortly after midnight: Arnold took down the election returns of this voting precinct (primary for selection of candidates for November 1936 election).
Thursday, May 21: … Mr. Andy Neanover planted my lot in corn.
Sunday, May 24: At home all day. A lot of auto travel on our Cincinnati, Hamilton, Richmond Pike - constructed 1842 to 1846; [as] a toll road. Made a free pike - 1883.
Friday, May 29: At home working on tolls and reports. I am getting books and tolls shaped up. I hope to close out this telephone company to Cincinnati Bell or Max Hosea of Indianapolis Indiana, before the close of this year.
Monday, June 8: Mr. Andy Neanover had his grandson harrow my cornfield, 2 acres. We are trying to conserve the moisture.
Friday, June 12: … Alfred Landon of Topeka, Kansas was nominated by the Republican convention being held at Cleveland Ohio. After an all-night session, they decided on Landon.
Saturday, June 13: The next show will be the Democratic convention to nominate Pres. Roosevelt for his second term.
Monday, June 15: … I went over our telephone plant, with Cincinnati Ohio Bell Company men to fix a boundary line.
Tuesday, June 16: … Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff and their brother from Florida called this p.m. [for] a few minutes. They were calling on a sister, Mrs. Lizzy Fisher.
Thursday, June 18: … I must get to Cincinnati and see the Bell [?] and sell out to them; if not, someone else. I must get rid of this business. It ties one now. Automatic is fast on the way.
Saturday, June 20: … Billy made a trip to Cincinnati [this] AM; home for dinner. He and his dad are out putting in a phone at [the] old Harris Farm.
Monday, June 22: … I went to Oxford and sent a report to the P.U.C; a map of the Darrtown Telephone Company. The Cincinnati Bell were [sic] kind enough to do the map work. A fine job it was and free of any cost to us.
Saturday, June 27: Hot and dry; no rain. We have had no rain for six long weeks. … Pres. Roosevelt was re-nominated for second term June 25 by a big Convention at the Quaker city of Philadelphia.
Wednesday, July 1: Charles Mixon and a wife called and paid rent, one year in advance, as usual.
Sunday, July 5: … This road has been crowded by autos all day. An average of 400 per hour and then some. Money for autos; but, slow to pay real debts - long due to my telephone company, owned by myself and family.
Thursday, July 9: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 80°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 96°.] The hottest day on record for the section of Ohio.
Friday, July 10: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 75°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF 110° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 80°.] Another scorching day. The west is the worst ever known; no water to supply stock and the crops are being eaten
by the grasshoppers.
Saturday, July 11: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 80°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 85°.] Another blistering day of heat.
Sunday, July 12: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 80°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 85°.] The highest heat temperature I have ever experienced in my life of 72 years …
Monday, July 13: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 90°.] I hope to get out some reports this week to tax commission of Ohio. Taxes and death [are] too sure things to men under civilized government.
Tuesday, July 14: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 80°.]
Wednesday, July 15: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 86°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 90°.] Still sweltering heat. … it looked like a shower this p.m.; but, the heat dissipated it.
Thursday, July 16: Another sweltering day. … the heat is so intense over Southern Canada that people are dying from heat and sun stroke by the hundreds, over three quarters of the US.
Friday, July 17: No let- up, as to heat. … no such a general drought has ever existed in US to equal this one.
Saturday, July 18: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 80°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 110° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 90°.] … the K of P have the town tonight. Fiddle and dance, get drunk and then, so forth. You can guess the so forth.
Tuesday, July 21: Another scorching day.
Wednesday, July 22: … Samuel Hertzog, an old resident of this town and neighborhood, wife, and son are here from Louisiana visiting relatives and friends.
Thursday, July 23: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 85°.] No change in heat and dry west winds. … I feel I am I am getting back on my feet from that unexpected fall and rib-breaking accident of February 19, 1932.
Friday, July 24: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 90°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 98°.] Heat and more heat and no rain in this section. Mr. Samuel Herzog will soon leave for Pennsylvania, where he was
born, to visit two brothers and one sister that still survive. He himself is now 84+ years of age vigorous and healthy.
Saturday, July 25: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 112° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 96°.] heat holds. The driest and hottest ever recorded since the white race settle the United States.
Sunday, July 26: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID DAY TEMPERATURE OF 90° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 85°.] Somewhat cooler, at last. Bill, grandson, went after Margaret and Jay Phillips: we had them [AS GUESTS] for dinner. Margaret is very poorly – Bright’s disease, I presume. She taught school 45 years and, no doubt, neglected a call to urinate, until intermission.
Money July 27: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 85°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF 90° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 85°.] today like the 26 [?] No perceptible difference. The dust bowl, or the Mississippi Valley proper, it is certainly a pitiable
sight: dead stock, lack of water and feed. Farms, well improved… abandoned in despair by weeping thousands.
Wednesday, July 29: [MR. MILLER RECORDED A MORNING TEMPERATURE OF 70°, A MID-DAY TEMPERATURE OF 90° AND AN EVENING TEMPERATURE OF 80°.] A decided change and we now hope for the local showers to be of more general nature, thus helping all parts in a general way. … I had a good talk with Margaret Phillips this p.m. She had business over to east Hamilton, came home okay and, apparently, had tried to go upstairs. They found her dead at the foot of [the] stairs. My favorite sister-in-law has departed.
Thursday, July 30: We are all sad and weeping, due to the unexpected death of Margaret Phillips. I partly raised her and, as a teacher, helped to educate her in the village and high schools. She taught in county schools and then in Middletown and Hamilton, Ohio schools. 45 years in all. She had been retired on a pension. She was, all her life, a student and instructor. Besides, helping other relatives.
Saturday, August 1: … Sister-in-law, Margaret Phillips, her earthly house she had occupied, was laid to rest, beside other departed relatives, in the Darrtown cemetery this afternoon. Peace to her soul. A good woman and a smart girl.
Sunday, August 2: Another hot day. … I called this p.m. at Andy Neanover’s and we had a pleasant chat …
Wednesday, August 5: weather is getting a little more normal. … Arnold is wiring Joe Davis’s house today.
August 10: [MR. MILLER SEEMED A BIT NOSTALGIC ON THIS DAY, AS HE RECORDED SOME BACKGROUND ABOUT HIS EARLY LIFE.] I was taken there, as a baby, only a few months old, a product of Vigo County Indiana. Woodford County, Indiana received my primary education in the District school. Back to Clay County, Indiana. Graduate of Central Normal College, Danville, Indiana.
Thursday, August 13: Another blistering day. Not much doing by anyone. … John Phenis is out to Andy Neanover’s on a vacation. He is now getting an old age pension of $18 per month. Ohio pays the old age pension when relatives are able to support them. The poor house and farm is
being abandoned pretty generally.
Friday, August 14: Another day [that is] a duplicate of the many gone by. Great heat. No rain and crops perishing for lack of water. Many people are out of water for stock and house use. It is probably the most serious drought and high thermometer on record in these U.S. Much of the
Mississippi Valley has been abandoned by man and beast. Rivers dry; also wells and springs.
Tuesday, August 18: Still the heat pours down upon, with no sign of quitting. … Billy Miller is working for a truck man, who is largely hauling water to farmers from [a] well on Talawanda -Oxford city hall.
Saturday, August 22: Another record heat breaker. The highest I have ever recorded. I have kept records, since 1883. This Cincinnati-Hamilton turnpike – built 1846 as a toll road - iscongested by autos, trucks and motorcycles. 10 to 15,000 a day pass my office.
Sunday, August 23: Another hot day. An airplane has just passed over. It was very high, just below some very high clouds. Will it be the future safest way to travel?
Sunday, August 30: Arnold went after Jay Phillips this a.m. She and Ray Phillips are keeping house, since the departure of Margaret Phillips on that long trip on which no one in the flesh has ever returned. But, in spiritual form, they do. I having had convincing evidence of that.
August 31: … The President of [these] U.S. is on a tour of an inspection of the dust bowl, as it is now called – the Mississippi Valley proper, tributary valleys are also badly hurt by drought.
Tuesday, September 8: … We have a sow and six pigs. We will breed the sow in December and make hogs out of pigs by December 30, 1936.
Saturday September 12: … Billy has been posting tolls this p.m. and left for Hamilton 4:40 PMby the thumb route. It has become the general way of boys - and even stray girls, out of employment, seeking jobs.
[EXTREMELY HOT AND DRY WEATHER CONDITIONS DOMINATED MR. MILLER’S DAILY NOTATIONS DURING THIS 1936 SUMMER. BEGINNING JUNE 7 AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 19, (A PERIOD OF 105 DAYS), THE DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURE REGISTERED BELOW 90° ON ONLY 10 OCCASIONS:
76° ON JUNE 11,
85° ON JUNE 13,
85° ON JUNE 18,
88° ON JUNE 22,
86° ON JULY 1,
85° ON AUGUST 27,
85° ON AUGUST 28,
85° ON AUGUST 30,
85° ON SEPTEMBER 2, AND
75° ON SEPTEMBER 17.
ON 26 DAYS OF THOSE 105 DAYS,
THE DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURE REGISTERED ABOVE 100°.
ON 13 DAYS OF THOSE 105 DAYS,
THE DAILY TEMPERATURE REGISTERED 112°.
DURING THIS NEARLY THREE-MONTH PERIOD, MR. MILLER RECORDED THAT LITTLE RAIN FELL THROUGHOUT THE WEST AND MID-WEST AREA OF NORTH AMERICA.]
Monday, September 21: Some cooler, after the good rains that have come to this section recently.
Sunday, September 27: A real summer day. Many visit the Butler County fair, free on Sunday previous [TO] the opening on Tuesday. Fair will close this year on Saturday this week. Bill shows a fine beef. All calves sold before close of fair.
Wednesday, September 30: … Guy Dynes is husking my shocked corn for the fodder for his cow: a good neighbor. He needs the fodder for his cow.
Friday, October 2: … Mr. Dietrich is a good neighbor and drops in frequently and always brings some garden stuff.
Friday, October 9: Rain [this] a.m. and a plenty. I have been busy on a report. I think I have it finally okay - in regard to telephone boundary between Darrtown company and the Seven Mile company.
Friday, October 16: … This day, 74 years ago, they tell me, I was born just as the new old fashioned clock (that was purchased on October 13 and placed on the high mantel shelf) was striking midnight. I entered this new world that was just entering a war between North and South that lasted four long years.
Wednesday, October 21: … Bill is driving a truck, hauling distiller’s slop to farmers for pigs and hogs. A starter, but not a hog finisher. Our pigs need rings in their noses and the males need trimming. Arnold is in Oxford wiring houses. His best help got on a toot and is now in the Cincinnati workhouse for 30 days to sober up.
Thursday, October 22: … Mr. E.T. Wilkes of Toronto, Canada called on a short visit. He has been a surveyor; but, is now retired.
Friday, October 30: … Guy Dynes is husking my shocked corn for the fodder. … He works in Hamilton and the evenings are getting too short to do much before dark.
Thursday, November 5: … Pres. Roosevelt has a clean sweep of U.S., except a few New England states. An official count will decide as to Maine and others…
Tuesday, November 10: … The corn husking contest on the Oyler farm was won by two brothers of Iowa, 1st and 2nd. Thousands attended - mud and rain regardless. A good-sized prize, in money received by the two brothers: I presumed they divided the “pot.” Corn had to be
husked clean.
Wednesday, November 11: … Arnold has been busy at his trade. He has been wiring a house here, in town, for Toby Alston.
Friday, November 13: A fine day. Eva had her washing did [sic] by Pearl Wiley and Mrs. Henry Popst. Arnold and Toad Neihoff [?] are down at George Baker’s wiring his house, also his barn.
Sunday, November 15: … Arnold is working on Minor Alston’s house today.
Saturday, November 21: … John Phenis and daughter called a few minutes this p.m. I fed the pigs and sow. They have a warm house to get in and to sleep. Six fine shoats [will] be ready to butcher by January or February, 1937. Cloudy and cold. I have coal in for the winter.
Sunday, November 22: … Mrs. Nellie Nickol Hansel died this a.m. Age 80+.
Monday, November 23: A raw, cold, and cloudy day. Two of our local residents have passed to that great unknown and are being (the house they have lived in) interred at and in the Darrtown cemetery this p.m.
Wednesday, November 25: Mrs. Nichol Hansel was laid to rest in the Darrtown cemetery today -80 years old. A daughter of Joseph Nichol, diseased, an able man, a descendant of the early settlers. I taught my first school in his district.
Thursday, November 26: … Big football game at Cincinnati Ohio this p.m. Cincinnati, Ohio and Oxford Miami team. A big crowd, regardless of the weather. A tie game; no one scored. $1.50 admission.
Sunday, December 6: A cold rain: a drizzle most of the day. Not much news. Only, the King of England wants to marry a divorced American widow.
Tuesday, December 8: … the King of England has resigned and will no doubt marry Mrs. Simpson, regardless of all pressure.
Saturday, December 12: … We are, no doubt, the sons and daughters of a creative force and that force still is at work. We, I believe, live again in a spirit world. I have had evidence of the afore statement.
Sunday December 13: … Arnold has been having trouble on line number 12. He is out on it now, 4 PM. I am out of a bottle of good old rye. I need a little.
Monday, December 14: … I have been in bed most of the day. Arnold and his helper are wiring the old Ben McVicker barn for electric light.
Thursday, December 17: … I have been confined to bed for a week at least, 15 hours each day.
Friday, December 18: … Arnold is doing work for Ed Thome, wiring the barn. He has finished the Stalheber job, … Thomas Stalheber had a bad fall a few days ago: he broke both arms and is now in the hospital at Hamilton, Ohio.
Saturday, December 19: … Arnold and helper have finished wiring the old McVicker barn, now owned by Ed Thome, who married a McVicker: res. a stone house built 1812, when this was a real wilderness.
Monday, December 21: … A mild day. Pigs get out of [MY] lot, hard to handle. … We must lock the gate and keep some kids out of lot: they have been playing on the telephone pole piles, in lot.
Thursday, December 24: … I have ordered a diary, via Co-Op at Oxford Ohio. I am glad to get one near home.
Monday, December 28: … Bill is driving trucks for Harry Teckman of Darrtown, Ohio. He is on a trip to Cleveland Ohio today. Two men to a truck: one can sleep while one drives: a long tiresome drive even for two men.
Thursday, December 31: a cloudy rainy day. Bill took a truck this a.m. to Cleveland Ohio: another driver was with him. I do not look for back before tomorrow. A bad fog this PM. Edward Teckman was laid to rest this 2 PM … a good honest hard-working man.
MR. MILLER RECORDED THE FOLLOWING POST-SCRIPTS AT THE BACK OF HIS 1936 DIARY; TOPICS INCLUDED:
>THE SEVERE WEATHER OF 1936
>PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S EFFORTS TO REPAIR THE NATION’S ECONOMY
>THE DEATH OF MR. MILLER’S “FAVORITE SISTER-IN-LAW”
THIS NOTE APPEARED AS THE LAST ENTRY FOR 1936: Edward Teckman passed away December 27, 1936. A good man and a good citizen. He has been ailing a short time and was at his son’s Harry Teckman’s [HOUSE]. He had been caretaker of the school building for many years.
